Chapter 3: Ravenport

After forty minutes of walking, Nor began to notice the signs that he was getting closer to the city.

People.

The road was becoming wider.

And most importantly — trading caravans were moving one after another toward Ravenport.

The city walls rose ten meters high and stretched for kilometers into the distance. Guards stood on top of them, carefully watching the surroundings.

Every time Nor saw them, he unconsciously froze.

— It's so beautiful… — he thought as he approached the pedestrian entrance to the city.

The entrance fee was only five copper coins. For comparison, the average salary of an ordinary worker was three silver coins a month, which equaled three hundred copper coins.

Nor handed the guard five copper coins and stepped through the massive gates, immediately swallowed by the noise of Ravenport.

Once inside, he saw crowds of people hurrying about their business and guards checking the goods in the caravans. But despite the overwhelming noise and chaos, Nor calmly continued forward.

As he walked through the crowd, he carefully looked around.

Ravenport was a trading port, and life here was in constant motion. Merchants loudly advertised their goods while sailors dragged heavy crates toward the harbor. The smell of salt and fish filled the air as crowded streets packed with merchants, sailors, and mercenaries blended into one chaotic flow of city life.

After half an hour, Nor found an inn and decided to stay there.

When he entered, he was greeted by a man in his forties and a young girl standing beside him.

— Hello. How can we help you? — the man asked, looking Nor over.

— I need the most ordinary room for a couple of days.

— No problem. We have a few rooms available. My assistant will show you the way.

After paying twenty copper coins for two days, Nor followed the girl.

— You can go in here, sir, — the assistant said, showing him the door to his room.

After that, she wished Nor a pleasant rest and left.

— Huh…

Nor dropped onto the bed and let out a heavy sigh.

— Now I can rest a little…

He was about to open his status, but he no longer said the command out loud. He simply thought about it.

He had learned this during the night, when he kept opening and closing the system window again and again. At some point, he accidentally didn't say "Status" out loud and only thought about it… yet the window still appeared.

Now it was more convenient.

And, more importantly, more discreet.

But just as Nor was about to open the system window, someone knocked on the door.

— Come in…

The door creaked open, and the man Nor had seen earlier entered the room.

Nor raised his eyes to him.

And in that same moment, he thought about the status again.

A system window appeared before his eyes.

But…

It wasn't his status.

Damn?!

Nor tensed. He still didn't know whether other people could see the system window, so throughout the entire journey he hadn't opened it even once and had tried not to think about it, just in case it appeared by accident.

— Sorry to interrupt your rest, — Gerold said. — My assistant forgot to ask whether you would be interested in breakfast. It will cost an additional four copper coins for two days.

The man spoke calmly and didn't look at anything except Nor.

That told Nor one important thing.

Other people couldn't see the system window.

After freezing for a few seconds and quickly thinking everything through, Nor finally answered:

— Yes… that works for me.

— Good! — Gerold said cheerfully. — Once again, sorry for bothering you. Have a good day.

With those words, he left the room.

— Phew…

Nor exhaled, staring at the system window in front of him, which was still showing the man's attributes.

— So… I can see not only my own status, but other people's too? That's amazing…

He frowned.

— But what even is this?.. This system… When it appeared in front of my eyes, I didn't have time to understand anything and missed several lines…

Suddenly, Nor looked at the man's status again.

Wait…

— So he's awakened… and a novice on top of that…

Nor's gaze moved lower.

Potential: Novice

He froze for a moment.

His potential is Novice too…

So that means he has already reached his limit…

His gaze stopped on the mana line.

— Mana — 100… If a novice has that much, then what do my fifteen million even mean?..

He fell silent for a moment.

— But I don't feel any mana inside me at all… And now that I think about it… since that day, I haven't wanted to eat or drink. I didn't even really feel sleepy. I was just doing all of it out of habit…

After that, Nor got up from the bed, walked over to the window, and, from the third floor, began looking at the people passing below.

A new window appeared before his eyes.

Then he looked at another passerby.

— Oh… so this is what an ordinary person who hasn't studied mana looks like…

Nor spent about half an hour checking the statuses of passersby, but after finding nothing particularly interesting, he eventually stopped...

After that, he started thinking again about what to do next.

— First, I need to learn how to control mana, — he muttered while pacing back and forth across the room. — And for that, I either need to buy a manual or hire a teacher…

In the end, he decided that sitting around was enough.

Nor went outside and headed toward the first notice board he saw. As he came closer, he quickly began searching for anything related to mana training for beginners.

But he found nothing like that there.

— Damn… I thought this would be much easier…

Nor was already standing in front of the third notice board, yet he still hadn't found anything useful.

So, he decided to ask the people nearby.

As it turned out, things like that could only be found in guilds.

— Thank you very much, — Nor said before setting off to look for one.

Thankfully, it wasn't difficult. There were only a few guilds in the city, and all of them were located near the center.

After some time, Nor stopped in front of the largest building he had seen in Ravenport.

Above the entrance hung a massive sign:

Greymoor Guild

— So this is it… — Nor whispered.